


Obsidian

by saphsaq



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Rise of Empire Era - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Korriban, M/M, Palace of Theet, Sith rituals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-11
Updated: 2013-05-11
Packaged: 2017-12-11 13:14:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/799136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saphsaq/pseuds/saphsaq
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Disclaimer: This is written for fun, not for making money. Therefore the appearance of famous Sith and Jedi characters should not cause uproar amongst George Lucas lawyers. Same rules for me and what is child of my brain in the story.</p>
<p>Set and setting: The story changes the result of the Duel Of The Fates just enough to have a chance, to set off alternative universes of fantasy. The obisidian has a special meaning for Maul. But beware, Sith rituals can be physical.</p>
<p>Acknowledgement: I am much obliged to indigobunting for her encouraging interest, helpful advice and extensive beta-reading.</p>
<p>Dedication: This is dedicated to 50 % of my genome – for technical teachings. And <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/users/Redone/pseuds/Redone">Redone</a> – Take me to Korriban?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Obsidian

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Redone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redone/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Take me to Korriban](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/21722) by Redone. 



* * *

##### Obsidian is a fast setting vitreous lava with changing chemical composition. It is, due to the prompt cool off, very friable and therefore must be very carefully handled while being cut. The colour of the real Obsidian is ivory black, but also brownish and greenish tones are possible. Some pieces show, as a result of embedded microscopic crystals or small bubbles, a silvery-white, yellow-green or green-golden shine. Its glass sharp edges after breaking make obsidian the best stone for carving knives. (According to 'Semiprecious And Precious Stones', book II by Dr. A. Eppler, 1912)

* * *

 

_The pain of the severe cut amazed him. Again ... It forcefully reminded him of the other cut so long ago. However, this feeling lasted only for the glimpse of a moment - the mind was fast back on its focus. But the constitutional inertia of the muscles slowed his body down. Grimacing , he stumbled backward. Then the sight of the padawan in desperate rage was replaced by the silent regularity of the surface of the melting pit._

During these early hours of the day the sea was smooth. Only a few, almost foamless tongues of the glass green water groped gingerly the coastal debris. Maul turned his gaze from the bulky lander at the thin stripe of the shore to the towering cliffs above. Both - the rocks of the cliff and the pebbles of the strand - were black. It was a scenery created by the fire deep inside this planet and destroyed by the cosmically driven tidal power of the water. The Sith Apprentice felt uncomfortable with the look of the space shuttle squatting on the sand. His discomfort was not because it was a permanent remembrance of the deadly difficulty of the approach and the start. It was merely an emotion that this piece of modern technology was utterly misplaced.

The apprentice knew what would happen next. He knew it from the two times he had been here before. When the master was ready, they would pass the gap that led like a ramp to the upper level of the cliff. Above the sea level the rocks were decayed into fertile, ochre-yellow soil that bore a velvet skin of lichens. Starting from few wind-covered dips, this green carpet spread over a small plain scattered with single rocks and truncated volcanic cones. The horizon was fixed by another range of black rocks not too far away. Older, ancient coastal cliffs. So high, that the early morning light could provoke bluish reflections on their snow-clad peaks.

Master and apprentice would go to the nearest elevation, a volcano cone with a remarkable dent in its flank that probably originated from a second explosion after the primary chimney had been jammed. In the middle of the dent a small red house was waiting for the two visitors. Here his master would finish the actual passage of the teachings. He, the apprentice had to complete the cycle of the third degree of Sith apprenticeship.

_While passing through the level for annihilation of ashes and other light matter with supersonic-combustion, Darth Maul worked on gathering himself together. Once he had brought the halves of his body into contact with each other, he assessed the rest of the injuries: the high blood loss - he still dragged a trace of red mist behind - the deflation of his lungs because of the opened abdominal cavity and destroyed midriff, his cut up stomach, the slashed first sections of the intestine, the rupture in his spinal nerves. Other main organs, like heart, liver and kidneys seemed to be in good condition. No reason to be worried. He stretched his arms and spread the legs to stabilize his falling body._

The small red house was only the entrance, an atrium of the real temple which reached, shaped like a upside-down turned pyramid, into the ground. His master had demonstrated to him the depth of the temple during his very first visit by throwing a spoon down the wide central light shaft. The piece of metal had tumbled down and from time to time hit the balustrade of a lower level. The ping-sound of the ricochets traced off after an eternity - spared the final click, which indicated the arrival at the very bottom.

This visit was to crown the yearlong physical and mental training, to make full the first degree of sithdom. "Fear! Fear is your ally, apprentice. Fear, the opposite of faith. To understand fear in full, you must know about its opposite. Faith!"

Darth Maul hadn't felt faith in his teacher, as Darth Sidious mounted him from back. He had been scared. Had felt impaled and overwhelmed by a power - the rhythm - from outside. His tensed muscles expected fearfully every new trust which renewed the acute pain. Trapped by Sidious's hands on his hips, Maul relied only on his will not to fail, to endure this lesson. Just before the point was reached, when the apprentice would probably have lost his inner strength, the master bent a bit forward and placed a hand on Darth Maul's shoulder. This hand with its firm but not merciless grip was what brought Darth Maul out his mindset with a kind of shock. The hand held him in position and at the same time offered his tensed body a support. He could lean against it, he could relax. Faithfully now the apprentice opened himself to the guidance of his master.

_His body seemed to be nearly recovered from the injuries - he risked destabilizing his descent again by taking back a hand and controlling the progress in healing. The hot, vibrating tissue of the scar his fingers touched satisfied him. He smiled and reached out to order the two things he had lost while falling down - the lightsabre and the clothing - back to serve him. He was now passing the level where lances of highly purified gas were used to speed up and harmonize the process of melting._

The first intention was to pay it back. All. All of what his master had done to him. This time - it was the second time master and apprentice visited the temple - he was over his master. Maul wasn't afraid like he had been the first time to encounter his master with naked, unarmed body. Neither was he afraid of the physical presence of his master. To complete the second degree of sithdom needed more than physical experience. Maul's studies over the last years had been focused on the mental mastery of The Force.

Without much preparation Maul had loaded himself with his master legs, to enter straight. Ramming his anger into this black hole. To provoke a reaction by chance, to shake his master's concentration. This time. But unperturbed by the hateful thoughts of his apprentice he surely had noticed, Darth Sidious caressed playfully his own member. He seemed to be rather bored than annoyed by the futile attempts of Darth Maul to arouse him. "What do you think it means to tame The Force? How will you bring it under your command without giving back some? Do you believe this exchange will made you weak? Or do you believe The Force is so weak you can just take it?"

Inside his master Maul rested for a moment. Eye in eye with him, carefully balancing the weight of his teacher's legs with the whole body, the apprentice hesitated, then allowed his deepest wishes to emerge. To see the flicker of the tiny flakes of gold in the eyes of his master, when he got aroused. To smell the scent of his master's sweat pearling over the heavily working chest and run together in small traces over the belly. To feel the response his master's body gave to his own movements. And to hear the little precious sobbing noise which indicated ultimate satisfaction. The onset of the climax, the state of oneness with his master and of full clearness of the mind. Now Darth Maul moved on in a different, refined pattern.

_To prevent continuing falling into the deepest part of the melting pit, Maul had to stop. The automatic control of the pit was programmed to crack non-standard waste only in this level. Behind the surface, the mighty windings of the magnets waiting to ignite with a sudden impulse of current the conversion to plasma of the objects in their range, to ensure that nothing remained of the strange matter. Carefully Maul slipped out of the residues of his tunics, added them to the bunch of cut fabric that stayed in the air beside him. Maul folded his legs beneath him and hovered above the last section of the pit. He had been healed up, he had his belongings back - the hands rested on the knees, the left one relaxed holding the lightsabre. Patiently he took his time. I should have kept my cool earlier today, thought he and chuckled softly._

Also this time, the third one - according to the full cycle of the third degree of apprenticeship, they again walked from the lander to the small red house. Once they arrived, the Sith Master gestured Darth Maul to begin contemplation. They started to walk down into the temple. Level after level they stepped deeper and Maul's consciousness widened. First he spread over the temple, then over the plain of lichens. As he reached the sea, he became aware how nicely the shuttle suited the primeval landscape around it. Its beauty was its simple and honest existence as a tool of transportation, which didn't deny its functionality. And that was the same, what every rock or primitive plant or amoeba in a water-drop didn't deny. At this point the animated and non-animated nature suddenly matched. Maul let the pleasant amazement fade away and moved on in his meditation.

Master and apprentice arrived at the very bottom of the temple. Never before had Darth Maul been here. Darth Sidious' emotionless voice addressed him: "Well, my apprentice. You have become used to considering life as nothing. You have reached a high level of physical and mental mastery. You are ready to submerge into the embrace of The Dark Side. Now you should do the last step and prove your will true with a personal sacrifice. Undress here. Then follow me and lay down at the altar. I'll neuter you."

"Yes, my master." Maul put down his clothes in a neat heap. He sensed calmness in his mind and at the same time he listened like an outsider to the sound of his bare feet on the floor of stone. There was a sudden shivering of his body as he lay down onto his back. Maul ignored it. A reaction caused by the coldness of the V-shaped altar, also carved from the pure rock from which the temple had been built. Also, it was just a notice for Maul, the reflex of the abdominal wall, as the master's left hand was placed on his body. The hand glided down between the opened legs, shoved aside the penis with its back, clasping the testicles. Pulling them in position, Darth Sidious clutched with the other hand the stone ceremonial knife ... Very concentrated, The Force froze his features.

_Darth Maul chuckled softly again._

Although his consciousness had been spread over the whole solar system of this planet, the fast cut was the source of a amazing amount of pain. He saw his master breaking the black blade of the stone ceremonial knife. A bloody splinter was placed at the middle of his chest. "Keep on contemplating. I'll be back in time."

_Darth Maul took a deep breath and exhaled slowly._

"It is time my apprentice. You think you know all mysteries of the Sith? Raise and see!" With one hand pressing the stone fragment against his chest, Maul sat upright.

_Darth Maul reached out to touch the pendant he wore on a leather strap on his bare chest._

Under the burning gazes of his master, Maul surveyed the blood-smeared spot between his thighs - only to find himself complete! He turned his head, seeking confirmation from Darth Sidious of the sudden realization. Into the asking eyes of his apprentice said the Sith Master: "Sacrifices are nonsense!"

_Darth Maul turned his gaze to the rim high above him._

"Sith Lords are forever ... Lord Maul."

_Darth Maul landed exactly in front of the padawan holding his fatally wounded master in his arms. "Are you ready?"_  

_"You're defeated. I hoped you were dead." The response was rather a comment than a cry of desperate amazement caused by the sight of the naked, uninjured upper torso of the enemy._

_"To be dead does not mean to be defeated. To be defeated does not mean to be dead," answered the Sith going along with the composed attitude of the Jedi._

 _"I'll be ready. Permit me the time to guard my master during his dying. Please."_

_"Of course." Gravely, Maul nodded in agreement and sat down near the pile of clothes he had dumped, legs folded, the hands rested on the knees, the left one relaxed holding the lightsabre._

 

**Author's Note:**

> First published around 2000 in the Sith Lords Are Forever series of the Darth Men Estrogen Brigade.


End file.
